Weekly Email w/b 16th October 2023

I’m really pleased that it’s my turn to write for the weekly news because I’ve been chewing over something that really challenged me on our Parenting for Faith course last week:

A minister described asking children what God is like, and getting answers such as “God is great” and “God cares for me” – great answers that we should be encouraged by, but she says that somehow they felt flat. And so, she changed the approach and instead asked “In your experience, what is God like?” which led to a completely different set of answers! It seems that these children were able to come up with all the right answers, but their own experience of God was different.

This got me thinking about our own children’s ministry. Are we helping children to encounter the living God and grow in relationship with him, or are we just giving them the right answers?

And of course, that is a challenge for us all in our daily lives too. I wonder whether our faith is built on a vibrant, two-way relationship with God, or whether we sometimes prefer to just have the answers? I wonder when we share our faith with others, can we help them encounter the risen Jesus, or is it easier to churn out the stuff that we know? We live in a world that relies on right answers, and when we don’t have the answers, we have devices at our fingertips that can find them in an instant. I wonder where we can make more space for encounter, more space to wonder and more space to grow?

Cerys Hughes, Children and Families Minister

PS If you would like to chew over more of this kind of thing, there are spaces available on our free Parenting for Faith course online on Monday evenings. Each session stands alone so don’t worry that you’ve missed some…come and join us!

Join in with Parenting for Faith

 

In our morning congregations we are in the swing of things in our autumn series called “Kingdom Come.” We are looking through the book of Nehemiah, which is full of themes like praying and vision, working together, and rebuilding when things are broken down. Alex Aldous will be speaking at 9am and 11am services, whilst Phil Cansdale will be speaking at CTK and Peter Madley is speaking at Belle Vue at 10.30am.

In the evening we’re gearing up for the next part of our climb up the “Mount Everest” of the book of Romans. Fi Iddon will be our speaker on the next leg of our journey as we get to the summit of the climb, looking at Romans 8. It’s all downhill after that as we begin to think about what life looks like in the light of an amazing hope in God. A reminder – for those who have missed it – that you can ‘catch up’ on our Romans series via the sermon archive on the website.

Sermon archive on website

The next Trinity Men’s Breakfast takes place on Saturday 11th November. Come and join us for a legendary breakfast, great fellowship and a bit of Saturday morning inspiration. We kick off at 8.30am, and will be clear to crack on with the rest of the day by 10am. All are welcome. And bring a friend!

Trinity Men’s Breakfast

Welcome to the first of our Advent and Christmas notices!

One of our big ideas for this year is to bless the local communities with some knitted choirs of angels, which in mid-December will be ‘winging their way’ to various public spaces in Meole Brace and Radbrook Green. People will be able to take one to decorate their own homes, and to think what it might mean for each and every one of us to ‘join the song’ the angels sang when Jesus was born.

As we work towards this we’d love to reach our goal of three hundred small knitted figures. Are you able to help us with this? You can do so from your own home, ideally using the sample pattern. Or come and join with others and enjoy being creative alongside other people. Dates and times as below. For more details contact Amal Moore via the Church Office who can also let you have a copy of the suggested pattern, or via the Church Office (email or in person)

The Meet Place. Thursdays 26/10, 9/11, 23/11 and 7/12 from 1.15pm to 2.45pm

The Trinity Centre. Tuesdays 31/10, 14/11, 5/12, 12/12 from 10am to 12pm.

Contact Amal Moore

An open invitation to our next “Service of Remembering” on Sunday 29th October. These usually last about 45 minutes. We read out a list of names for those for whom we have taken funerals, as well as other names of those perhaps long deceased but still very much on our hearts. There are opportunities to light a candle as a sign of remembering, and to enjoy the stillness and peace of the church which has been part of people’s remembering for many, many generations. We’ll hear again of the Christian gifts of faith, hope and love. We’ll finish with refreshments at the back of church hosted by our team.

 

We’re so grateful to all those who help keep the gardens and grounds around the Church looking so beautiful at all times of year. Our gardener Tim Creyke is looking for volunteers to form a working party to do some undergrowth clearance, and tree and hedge planting in the Glebe Field. If you could spare one or two Saturday mornings over the next 2 months please contact Tim via the Church Office.

And – advance notice – our annual churchyard leaf clearing is pencilled in for Saturday 18th November. Could you come along, and bring suitable rakes / brooms etc. This really is one of those “many hands make light work” moments, and could be a great fun way of getting together with other people on a Saturday morning. Many thanks.

 

We love the writing of Pete Greig, who – amongst other things – says “The best bit of advice I ever received about how to pray was this: keep it simple, keep it real, keep it up.”

It was really great this week to have an evening hosted by MRDC to pray for some of the big things going on across the world. Find out about other opportunities to pray via our new website page on prayer, where we hope you’ll more easily find some of the different ways in which we want to be equipping and encouraging you to pray. Gatherings in person and online, links to some resources, prayer circle, and an online opportunity for you or others to say “pray one for me.” Click below to find out more.

Find out more about our prayer resources

Do you like sewing/appliqué? Are you creative? Do you have a favourite piece of scripture, or line from a worship song, that you would love to develop into a work of art?

You will have noticed that there is a Harvest banner covering the long notice board in Bradbury Hall, and this is one of a range of stunning banners, both full length and in panels, which successive teams have made for us over the years. We have a variety of seasonal banners for Easter, Pentecost, Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas and even Valentines Day but it would be lovely to have some ‘generic’ ones to display in between the church seasons.

We would love to convene a new group of like-minded folk to continue the tradition of making these banners and panels, to complement our beautiful Hall, and to speak of Jesus to our visitors. If you are interested in being part of such a group, please contact either Jenny Surl or Helen Hinton in the office.